SHRINK OUR BILLS

Broadband

Superfast Essex have released an update on the broadband rollout in Essex. Gigaclear is building an entirely new full fibre network to rural areas which in itself is complex – both in terms of negotiating permissions with third parties to physically dig up roads and laying new fibre cables and agreeing local road closures. Gigaclear is also growing at a rapid pace and there has been a lag in scaling its business processes, resulting in some network rollouts taking longer than anticipated. Gigaclear has recognised the need to commit more resource to the project and is doubling the size of its Essex team, including the addition of a dedicated local community liaison officer, and is also establishing an Essex-based office.

Energy

OFGEM have appointed Scottish Power to take over the customer base of Extra Energy who ceased trading in the week. The small companies struggle when they gain in size and suddenly have to pay all the tariffs that bigger companies pay. They have two choices – ask their customers to pay more or take a profit cut. Both options mean that the smaller companies often don’t make it through this change. You know about companies that don’t advertise, that don’t appear on comparison sites, that don’t bombard you with adverts. It just so happens that Utility Warehouse’s cheapest tariff is cheaper than Scottish Power’s cheapest tariff (according to OFGEM’s stats!). That is even before you add in Cashback Card savings! The cashback card is a prepaid debit card which, as long as you have at least one product with Utility Warehouse Discount Club, gives you the opportunity to offset the costs of your utility bills with cashback from your shopping. If you are buying something anyway (especially at this time of year) and you can keep all the loyalty rewards that any store offers you, this scheme means that in January – a five week month – those bills for electricity, gas, mobile and broadband can be a little bit less. It’s up to you. You control your bills. Want to know more? Talk to us.

Mobile

Are you one of those people that takes the unlimited offer to play safe? How much are you actually using? What about your children if you are paying the bill? Are they using their mobiles wisely? Do you know that you can set your APPs to update only when you are connected to wifi? You do not have to use mobile data all the time. Do you know how important it is to keep the APPs updated? Do you backup your phone? If you want to have answers that might help you decide how to shrink your bills – talk to us.

You may find all this boring, confusing, and you would much rather spend your time doing things you enjoy, so why not let someone take the hassle away – that’s us of course.